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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/27107092">Take It All The Same</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/Owlship/pseuds/Owlship'>Owlship</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Series:</b></td><td>Riding the SkyTrain [8]</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Transformers: Cyberverse</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Conspiracy, Developing Relationship, F/M, Other, Robots getting drunk, Size Difference, Size Kink, Sounding, Sticky Sexual Interfacing, Treason, Urethral Intercourse, give astrotrain a medal he's finally realized he has emotions!!</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-10-20</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-10-20</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-06 16:21:10</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>Explicit</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>No Archive Warnings Apply</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>9,266</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/27107092</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/Owlship/pseuds/Owlship</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>::Impatient?:: she replies, swooping in low to buzz past his plating, almost close enough for her wing to collide with him.</p><p>::Been thinking about this all cycle:: Astrotrain says, dropping the pitch of his voice to something low and hopefully enticing. It's not a lie, either; he's been thinking about clanging Skywarp pretty much every cycle since their last encounter. He's just held off asking until now because he doesn't want to seem overeager, demanding of her time.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Astrotrain/Skywarp (Transformers), Background Skywarp/Starscream/Thundercracker (Transformers)</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Series:</b></td><td>Riding the SkyTrain [8]</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Series URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/series/1926703</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>6</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>21</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>Take It All The Same</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p>I apologize because the timeline of this fic got messed up in order for the pacing to work! The first half takes place <i>before</i> Skywarp's "spy scene" at the end of the last fic, and the rest takes place <i>after</i> that part. It'll hopefully be pretty obvious once you get there, but I've added a physical divider between the sections to mark the shift, just to be clear.</p><p>Some dialogue taken directly from the show.</p>
    </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>"Oh, and here," Dead End says just as he disembarks, and thrusts out a small glass jar full of what looks like metal filings.</p><p>Astrotrain flips into his root mode and stares at the jar distrustfully. He hasn't bargained with Dead End for anything extra besides the price of tonight's trip to and from Autobot territory.</p><p>"You taking it or what?" Dead End says, and shakes the jar a little.</p><p>"What is it?" Astrotrain asks, wary of anything Dead End is offering.</p><p>"The Allspark," he says sarcastically. "It's some energon flavoring, I don't know. Skywarp paid me to get it from Maccadam's while I was in the neighborhood."</p><p>Astrotrain takes the jar and doesn't ask why Dead End isn't delivering it directly. He's honestly a bit surprised Skywarp even reached out to him in the first place; they don't seem to get along.</p><p>But it gives him the perfect excuse to open a portal to her berthroom, because if she's not in then he has a set of magnets in his subspace pocket that he can stick under her berth for her to be surprised by. He hasn't been sure if he should continue with the pranks they're exchanging, not after accidentally involving one of her trinemates and then getting horrifically shrunk down in retribution, but when this idea occurred to him it seemed reasonable enough. The magnets are strong enough to hold her down, but not nearly strong enough to have any sort of negative affect on her system, and depending on how things go they might even have some fun with them before he frees her from their grip.</p><p>He doesn't expect to find another seeker in her habsuite, and stumbles his exit from the portal.</p><p>Thundercracker looks surprised, standing up from a desk abruptly at his arrival, but doesn't shift into a more aggressive stance once recognition shows on his faceplate. "There's a door," he says pointedly.</p><p>Astrotrain glances at the door, which he clearly hasn't bothered to use. And then he looks around the rest of the berthroom and realizes that of course, it's not just Skywarp's, not anymore. "I didn't think anyone would be here," he says.</p><p>"Uh-huh," Thundercracker says, tone bordering on flat. "So you're here to leave more poison?"</p><p>Astrotrain flinches. He hadn't meant for the box of energon goodies to cause any actual harm; he hadn't realized that the amount of additive he put in them would be a problem, since it would take many times more than that to affect his own system. It's a relief that Skywarp hadn't been the one to feel his miscalculation firsthand, but he doesn't think admitting that to the mech he <em>did</em> make ill would be a wise choice.</p><p>"It wasn't poison," he says, and unbidden adds, "I don't want to hurt her."</p><p>Thundercracker gives him a good long look, the kind that makes Astrotrain want to pull himself into an alt mode so there's less to give away. "What <em>do</em> you want with Skywarp?"</p><p>Astrotrain shrugs, actuators tight and movement jerky, his discomfort only partly the fault of the mass-shifting he did to fit inside this berthroom in the first place. He would have said he's just having fun, blowing off charge with a willing berthpartner, but ever since they merged he's all confused, processor shook up like he can't defrag properly. He likes Skywarp, might have been tempted to try making some sort of deeper connection- except she has her mates already.</p><p>As much as she's assured him that she can interface outside her trine, anything else is clearly off the table, and he's reluctant to examine why that feels like a disappointment.</p><p>"I'm not good at pranks," he finds himself saying. "But she likes them. And I like..." He gestures vaguely, hoping he doesn't have to say out loud that he likes clanging her, hoping he doesn't end up saying anything <em>else</em> he likes about her.</p><p>"Yeah, she sure does," Thundercracker says with a sigh, but there's a smile curling up his mouth, equal parts loving and resigned. That smile disappears quickly, replaced with a serious expression. "I don't really care what you do together, as long as it doesn't involve me- except that I <em>will</em> know if you hurt her."</p><p>"I haven't," Astrotrain says, a flicker of guilt as he recalls that he <em>did</em>, that time she gave him the fake rust virus. But he barely knew her then, and had honestly thought she attacked first, anyway.</p><p>"Keep it that way," Thundercracker says firmly. It's not said like a threat- not that Astrotrain would feel very threatened by a single seeker- but there's an undercurrent to it all the same.</p><p>Astrotrain nods, feeling horribly awkward. "Sorry about... I didn't mean to make you ill," he mutters. He doesn't often apologize for his actions, and normally he wouldn't bother, except that Thundercracker is important to Skywarp and so it feels like he should.</p><p>"Like I said, just leave me out of it," Thundercracker says, which is not forgiveness, but his wings lower to a more relaxed position. "Which means whatever you came here to set up, take it elsewhere."</p><p>That seems fair, now that Astrotrain knows the habsuite is shared. He nods, and pushes the button to open the door back to the hallway rather than escaping through another portal.</p><p>He gets three steps down the hallway before remembering the jar of flavoring Dead End passed to him, and pivots in place. There's a chime outside the doorway of her quarters but it looks broken (it looks like someone shot it, several times), so he taps his knuckles gently against the door itself.</p><p>Thundercracker looks confused to see him again, optical ridges drawing together in a frown. "Yeah?"</p><p>"This is for Skywarp," Astrotrain says, and holds out the small jar. "She had Dead End get it for her from, uh, Maccadam?" He can't help the way his tone twists up into a question at the end, unsure if that's the right name but aware as soon as the words are out that it just makes him seem suspicious.</p><p>"...Right," Thundercracker says, clearly thinking this is an inept attempt at a prank.</p><p>Astrotrain can't blame him, even if it is frustrating. "I'm just delivering it," he says, and moves his hand like he's going to drop the jar.</p><p>Thundercracker takes it before that happens, still looking confused and suspicious. "I'll let her know," he says.</p><p>"Thanks," Astrotrain says, and the discomfort of the encounter is finally too much. He steps away from the door and opens a portal, disappearing into unspace with something like relief.</p><p> </p><p>With the dimensional ray tested and working- albeit, needing adjustments- Astrotrain feels himself relax. Not because he thinks the weapon is a fool-proof way to defeat Megatron, but because with it he's proven himself useful to this dimension's Megatron.</p><p>He even decides to take the time to recreate the ray in miniature for Megatron to wield by hand, because that will be even more useful than a cumbersome stationary ray. It'll take at least a couple more cycles to manufacture, but he's sure the time and effort will be worth it.</p><p>In the meantime, though, he's less stressed about the project even though Dead End has been reassigned to some other task, more willing to slack off in the middle of the cycle and comm Skywarp to see if she's up for some fun.</p><p>When Soundwave and Shadow Striker had shown up, Astrotrain worried that Skywarp had been the one to mention something about the workshop, but they hadn't seemed to have a clue. Just tracking Astrotrain himself from the times he hadn't used the multiverse drive to jump directly to the workshop.</p><p>::I could be persuaded:: she replies, ::But you'll have to come to me. I'm on patrol::</p><p>There's nothing in the workshop he can't set aside for a while, and now that Soundwave knows of its existence, there isn't even any reason to stay and keep guard. Astrotrain transforms to his shuttle form and lifts out of the open roof. ::Tell me where::</p><p>Skywarp clicks back with coordinates near a section of the border and he opens a portal, already feeling a buzz in his circuits. When he emerges at her location she's flying low in tandem with another trio of seekers, sunlight glinting bright off the silver in her paint scheme.</p><p>::I didn't plan on an audience:: he says, amused as the seekers startle out of their formation like a flock of pigeonoids at his sudden appearance.</p><p>Laughter streams across the comm-link, Skywarp the only one holding her position steady. ::You're kidnapping me:: she tells him, ::Get ready to chase!::</p><p>Astrotrain doesn't have time to ask what she means, because as soon as she stops talking her thrusters flare up and she rockets away, corkscrewing up into the clouds. He follows without really thinking about it, leaving the still-disorganized seekers behind as he coaxes his engines to a higher gear.</p><p>There's no question about which of them is faster; Skywarp is a jet honed for speed and agility, and he is a shuttle that really should be coasting between the stars. But she's not really trying to evade, she's just playing, glass of her cockpit flashing as she spins and maneuvers, never far enough to shake him off her tail. She doesn't even teleport to really force him to catch up, and so he doesn't open any of his own portals either.</p><p>She leads him back towards the Line and the seekers supposedly patrolling it, and then away again, putting on speed whenever he gets too close until Astrotrain really <em>is</em> trying to catch her, something like arousal and frustration and joy all mingling together in his co-processor. They drift far enough from the territory line and its patrol routes that he's sure she'll signal for them to land, but she just keeps going.</p><p>::Someplace specific in mind?:: he comms when the frustration starts to edge out his other emotions.</p><p>::Impatient?:: she replies, swooping in low to buzz past his plating, almost close enough for her wing to collide with him.</p><p>::Been thinking about this all cycle:: Astrotrain says, dropping the pitch of his voice to something low and hopefully enticing. It's not a lie, either; he's been thinking about clanging her pretty much every cycle since their last encounter. He's just held off asking until now because he doesn't want to seem overeager, demanding of her time.</p><p>She executes the kind of move only a daring seeker would attempt, rolling herself upside-down underneath his fuselage and then bumping him, undercarriage to undercarriage, and it's not like their frames are configured anywhere the same in alt mode as when bipedal but he still feels his engines lurch at the implications. Primus, he thinks as Skywarp peels away with a cheeky giggle, if she doesn't deactivate him it'll be a miracle.</p><p>::It's just up ahead:: she tells him, which saves her from being tackled out of the air and fragged wherever they happen to land.</p><p>'It' turns out to be an old recreational rail-park tucked away on the outskirts of a minor city, even a few high looping arches seemingly spared any destruction save the passage of time, tracks catching the light as they sprawl out in a graceful tangle. Astrotrain is rendered speechless, because clearly she found this place and thought of him, a gesture he wasn't expecting on any level.</p><p>She swerves in close to him again, and he leaps into a transformation sequence, grabbing her out of the air. Skywarp squawks in alarm but doesn't fight, weapons offlined and warp drive quiet, even as he drops them with little grace heavily onto the ground.</p><p>"<em>Skywarp</em>," he says as he looks at the jet clutched in his arms, a broad smile stretching his faceplate. He doesn't know where to go from there, though, already too confused by what he's feeling, confused that she would show him this place. Maybe she carried away a bit of his self from that merge, the same way he felt fragments of her for cycles.</p><p>"Lemme up!" she says, wiggling slightly against his hold.</p><p>Astrotrain lets her go, and she transforms into her root mode with a shy smile on her lips, wings waggling back and forth at the tips.</p><p>"Surprise," she says. "I saw this place on recon and knew you'd like it. You do like it, right?"</p><p>"Yeah," he's quick to assure her. "I didn't think anyplace like this existed here, anymore."</p><p>"Not much call for dumb track-bound wheels these cycles," Skywarp says, and the words should sting but it's soothed away by her smile, her tone only teasing. "Anyway," she continues, reaching out one of her tiny hands to touch his shin, "You can go play <em>after</em> you thank me properly."</p><p>Heat pools under his modesty panels as his interfacing protocols spring into action and he kneels down, bringing himself closer to her level. "How should I do that, hmm?"</p><p>She licks her lips. "I want to spike you," she says, and the words send a pulse of charge directly through his array.</p><p>"Yeah," Astrotrain replies, and starts trying to figure out how much mass he's going to need to take off for this to work. He's used to taking smaller partners in his valve- it's expected when fragging across size classes that the smaller mecha does the spiking- but she's so much smaller than most bots that spike him that he can't just unsnap his cover and expect either of them to be satisfied.</p><p>Except, there's this one thing... He's only actually done it once, it's not something he'd ask a random fragpartner he picked up for the night to do and it's kind of unusual anyway, but he thinks Skywarp might go for it.</p><p>"I've got an idea," he says, and waits for her to make a gesture telling him to continue. "If I stay this size, your spike might, uh, fit inside my transfluid duct."</p><p>He can't look at her as he says it, it's too embarrassing to ask for this, to reveal one of his closely-guarded preferences after thousands of cycles of trying to not have any at all.</p><p>"Oh," Skywarp says, a soft sound of surprise but- or so he hopes- not disgust. He glances at her, and she's still leaning in towards him, still seems interested. "You'd like that?"</p><p>He nods, cables and gears tense as he waits for her to reject him, tell him it's too strange.</p><p>But she only licks her lips again, wings shivering as they fan out behind her. "Sounds fun," she says.</p><p>Tension unspools through Astrotrain's frame as relief filters in. He doesn't ask her if she means it, if it's really not too strange for her. If she can ask him to frag into her subspace pocket, surely this isn't any weirder?</p><p>He reaches for her, eager to get charged up, eager just to feel her against his plating like a live wire as she clambers up his frame to kiss and stroke. There's no cover to be had; the only buildings nearby in the railyard are too small for him to fit inside, and while he's not very comfortable clanging outdoors where anyone could stumble on them, Skywarp doesn't seem to have any of the same inhibitions.</p><p>"How do you want to do this?" she asks, sounding far too composed for someone who's having her cockpit licked. Her squirming gives her away, though, the little wriggles and flicking wings she can't seem to suppress as he runs his glossa around the division of metal and glass.</p><p>He pulls his intake away reluctantly; whatever she uses to polish her plating tastes good, and even better when the crackle of electricity starts to hit his glossa. He'll want to not be lying down flat for this, wants to watch her easily- as much for his own enjoyment as to make sure nothing goes wrong, since she's probably never done this before. Astrotrain wraps his hands around her and lifts her as he stands, and she squeaks and giggles in playful protest.</p><p>The buildings are too small to fit inside comfortably, but they're sturdy enough to lean his back against, legs splaying out in front of him to deposit Skywarp between.</p><p>He opens the modesty panel over his spike but denies its request to extend, putting a manual override lock on the function. "Like this," he says, vocalizer rough.</p><p>She reaches for his retracted spike immediately, only the head accessible where it protrudes from the housing. "You don't want it out?" she asks, fingers stroking the smooth curve from outside edge to just shy of the transfluid duct's opening in the middle.</p><p>Astrotrain shakes his helm. There are only a few basic sensors in the transfluid duct, meant to alert to blockages, but when his spike is retracted like this those sensors are clustered together, easy to reach and easy to confuse with sensations they're not meant to feel. "Okay for you?"</p><p>"I think I can make it work," she says with a smile, and then ducks her helm down to lick directly over the opening.</p><p>He twitches and tries not to jerk in place, a moan ripping from him when she doesn't move her mouth away but <em>keeps</em> licking, glossa and lips hot and wet and soft, kissing his duct passionately. It's obscene, the contact so pin-point his sensornet is already fritzing with static. And then she brings her hands up to play with the mesh of the housing itself, small digits stroking all over.</p><p>He moans again, charge building in his circuits at the sight of her, the feel of her intake, the knowledge that she's not going to stop with just her glossa inside his duct. Indeed, she pulls away with a wet slurping noise, lubricant he's leaked a sticky gleam on her faceplate.</p><p>Skywarp doesn't ask if he's sure, or ready, which he appreciates. She just rubs one hand flat along the head of his spike and then circles the rim of his opening with a digit. "I think I can fit," she says, optics flicking up to look directly at him. "It doesn't flex, right?"</p><p>He shakes his head, anticipation clenching low in his frame. "Not much," he replies. There's a slight amount of give to the transfluid duct, but not enough to stretch around something larger than its starting diameter. The thought that she might be too <em>big</em> for him is equal parts disorienting and arousing, his processor running circles around itself in his excitement.</p><p>She hums and focuses on her digits again, sliding one directly into the duct.</p><p>He shouts, leg twitching as actuators fire off without his permission at the sensation.</p><p>She immediately jumps back. "Did I hurt you?"</p><p>"No," Astrotrain says with a shake of his helm, "It's good, you're good." He resists the urge to grab her and force her back against him, instead focusing inward for a moment to try and dial down his physical reflex settings.</p><p>When she reaches for him again he's ready, the shock of contact on sensors that haven't been manipulated in Primus knows how long more contained. Skywarp watches him, but she must pick up on the fact that he's very much in favor of what she's doing because the nervous tilt of her wings relax, and she slides her digit in further and further, down to the knuckle.</p><p>"It's so wet inside," she says, demonstrating this observation by dragging her digit back out, a trail of lubricant following. "I never thought of that before."</p><p>He grunts, and she flicks her optics back up, a sly little smile on her faceplate. "Getting impatient?" she asks.</p><p>Yes, he doesn't say, hoping his expression conveys the message for him. It must, because her smirk widens and she slides a second digit into the duct alongside the first, and as if that isn't enough she <em>twists</em> them, twirling over the sensors in a way he's never felt before.</p><p>Astrotrain is suddenly worried that she'll end up short-circuiting his system, but it feels so good he can't even pretend to ask her to stop.</p><p>"Please," he rasps out, already feeling far too close to overload.</p><p>She bends down and licks his opening around her digits, and he moans and pushes his back against the building behind him, a hand raising to his intake to muffle himself. She tortures him like this until she has three digits all inside him, pushing against the internal tubing of his duct, the sensors confused and sending out nonsense data as his processor tries to map what he's feeling to the expected locations on the <em>outside</em> of his spike.</p><p>"Skywarp," he moans, begging and not really caring anymore.</p><p>She grins up at him, denta flashing and optics glowing bright even against the harsh sunlight, and pulls her digits out completely.</p><p>He groans in dismay at the loss, but she isn't just teasing him more- she's climbing up onto his lap, her spike extended and bio-lights pulsing along its sleek length. "Ah, can you tilt your hips up?" she asks, and he does his best to comply. "There, that's good."</p><p>Her spike is larger than her digits, and as the head notches against the opening of his transfluid duct he worries that she won't fit after all. The duct isn't designed to stretch after all, not like the welcoming mesh of a valve.</p><p>But Skywarp presses against him slowly, lubricant absolutely everywhere by now, and the head slides inside. Her spike, inside his spike. He can't even moan, his vocalizer glitching up as he watches, feels her nudging deeper and deeper.</p><p>Her spike swells a bit after the head, a graceful torpedo shape that tapers back down at the base and felt incredible for her fast thrusting when she was inside his valve, and it's nearly too large for his transfluid duct, sensors alerting him with blockage warnings from the pressure. She draws her hips back, rocks forward. Another nanometer of her spike slips inside each time, his duct flexing and straining in ways it really isn't meant to, until with a gasp her hip plating collides flush to the head of his spike.</p><p>Astrotrain has to fight to keep his optics open, wanting to watch her, wanting proof burned indelibly in his memory files of how it looked to have her inside him like this, fragging her way inside his own spike.</p><p>"You like it?" she asks, hips flexing in a slow, rolling rhythm, hands gripping his plating hard enough his sensornet is trying to register it as discomfort, potential damage. Her optics flash as she looks up at him.</p><p>"Good," he rasps out, the hand he isn't digging into the ground beneath him for stability curling around her frame, helping support her position. "So good."</p><p>She bares her denta in a victorious smile, thrusts speeding up in increments. "Taking it so well," she tells him, "So wet, so tight."</p><p>He moans in static, fighting to keep his hips from rising to meet her, spike throbbing inside and out, trapped in its housing and yet electrified by the friction it's receiving. His sensornet is in disarray, charge fluctuating across his capacitors, processor unable to focus on anything except wanting more, more, <em>more</em>.</p><p>Skywarp tenses, rhythm stuttering. "Is it okay if I," she says, "Should I pull out?"</p><p>She's going to overload, he realizes, and can't stop himself from putting pressure on the hand resting over her back, encouraging her to stay close. "Inside," he forces out, a shudder running through him.</p><p>She lets out a groan and thrusts in a flurry, then pushes deep and holds, wings quivering and helm tipped back.</p><p>Astrotrain can't really feel her spilling, his sensors aren't that adept to pick up spurts of transfluid as it mingles with the lubricant already in his duct, but the thought of it alone is a deep throb of pleasure through his system.</p><p>She draws her spike back out, glistening with transfluid, and at the sight he moans her name and maybe some sort of entreaty to Primus as he overloads in a shocking crash.</p><p>There wasn't time to warn Skywarp and he distantly hears her sputtering as transfluid shoots out of his spike, covering her in sticky splashes that glisten against her dark plating. She looks good like that, he thinks dumbly as his processor struggles to do anything but take stock of his frame in the aftermath of such an explosive overload.</p><p>"A little warning next time," she grumbles, but doesn't really sound upset about it.</p><p>He hums, and swipes a digit through a spatter that landed on her wing. At least she wasn't still inside him, he's not sure how that would have worked.</p><p>Her spike is still extended, and he remembers that she has that program, the one that does away with a recovery period completely. She probably wasn't expecting him to overload so quickly- not that he was expecting it, either. Because he's already gotten his, Astrotrain considers leaving her like that, charged up with no outlet, but the petty amusement he'd get from it just isn't appealing.</p><p>"Come here," he says instead, and curls his hands around her frame to bring her up to the level of his helm. She wiggles a little, finding her balance more than trying to get away.</p><p>She squeaks when he swipes her with his glossa, licking up his spent transfluid from her frame. But then she pushes into it, arching her spinal strut to thrust her chest at him, widening her legs to make sure he has access to her spike. He chuckles a little, more a rumble through his chassis with his intake occupied. She's just always so eager for whatever she can get.</p><p>His glossa doesn't do a very thorough job of cleaning her up, too busy playing with his favorite parts of her frame, flicking and curling around her spike and marveling all over again that it was just inside of his own. </p><p>Astrotrain works her to overload with his mouth and his digits until she's a shuddering heap, new stripes of transfluid on her shiny plating that he licks away.</p><p>"Mm," she hums as he lowers her back to his lap, setting her across his thighs when she shows no inclination to get up and stand on her own. "Are you sure that's enough of a 'thank you'?"</p><p>"I haven't even seen if the tracks are any good," he says, more to tease her than because he'd really be opposed to another round, once his array finishes resetting.</p><p>"Alright then, let's go," Skywarp says, stretching herself out in graceful, languorous movements that seem perfectly designed to draw attention to the sleek design of her frame. She jumps off his thighs and starts walking to the first sprawl of tracks, pausing to look back over her shoulder at him when she notices he isn't following.</p><p>He shakes away the distracting thoughts of pinning her down and keeping her on edge until he's ready to go again, getting to his pedes in a far less attractive manner. There's tracks to run on, an alt mode to stretch, the sun warm on his plating and a pleasant buzz lingering in his circuits. And there's Skywarp, laughter ringing out as she dares him to go faster, to try the more precarious tracks, wings flashing in the air alongside his thundering wheels.</p><p>He is, Astrotrain thinks with no small amount of surprise, happy.</p><p> </p><p>It's hard to come up with a prank that doesn't require access to her berthroom, yet is aimed at Skywarp specifically, since as far as he knows she doesn't have any sort of office or other space she frequents. He thinks maybe he should just leave it alone- it's been cycles now since she shrank him, it's probably obvious he doesn't have any ideas for retaliation- but he wants her to smile, to focus her attention on him.</p><p>Astrotrain ponders this while soldering the last of the circuits in the handheld dimensional ray, unfocused enough that he has to then desolder half the junctions and start over when he realizes the connections are all wrong.</p><p>He's still feeling unbalanced by her showing him that railyard, a gesture more thoughtful towards him than any he can recall in recent memory. Maybe he doesn't <em>have</em> to prank her to keep her interest, he thinks, his processor offering up more evidence in the form of memories from the night they'd gotten overcharged and, well.</p><p>He can count on one hand the number of mecha he's sparkmerged with, let alone merged after sharing such personal and formative data. Astrotrain half thought he'd never get her out of his processor after that, that some of her coding might have cemented itself in his circuits.</p><p>That's not possible, of course, short of a purposeful reprogramming. But it had still been overwhelming in the aftermath, until the remnants of her identifiable data had been filtered out below the threshold for notice.</p><p>He's not saying he wants a repeat of everything they did on that roof, but spending time with her without one of them taunting the other about falling for a practical joke, without the undercurrent of competition or schadenfreude... He wants that.</p><p>So if it's not a prank getting her attention, something nice? He doesn't have anything that remotely compares to the railyard, not unless she wants a miniature dimensional ray- he ex-vents a snort at the thought, especially since although it's as compact as he could make it, he has his doubts if she could even lift the ray. A smaller gesture makes more sense, anyway. If he's misinterpreted their interactions, a new jar of polish or some untainted energon goodies are much easier to explain away than custom weaponry.</p><p> </p>
<hr/><p> </p><p>He finds her in the main rec room, having what looks like an intense conversation with Thundercracker, hands gesticulating hard enough to slosh the energon in the cube she's holding over the sides.</p><p>Astrotrain hadn't planned to run into her tonight, he's only in the rec room to try and track down a source for a gift. He's immediately wary of her clearly agitated state, but it's impossible to disguise his entrance when he has to physically scrape himself in past the doorway. Skywarp flicks her attention his way, dismissive, then does a double-take.</p><p>He half raises a hand in greeting, keeping Thundercracker and his reactions in view. Astrotrain doesn't want to get between some sort of domestic squabble.</p><p>He has barely settled himself into a corner so he can listen to the music being thrashed out when Skywarp strides over, intent look on her faceplate. Thundercracker has his arms crossed over his chassis, obviously not pleased about something, but his attention is on Skywarp and not Astrotrain.</p><p>"Hey," he says when she stops next to his folded-up knees, helm tilting up to look him in the optics. He wants to ask if she's alright, but he also really doesn't want to get into whatever drama is going on between her and her mate.</p><p>"Wanna get out of here?" she asks, without even a greeting.</p><p>"I just got here," Astrotrain says, less because he wants to stay and more because this close he can tell that the cube in her hands is (or rather, was) full of high-grade, her bio-lights glimmering like she's already pretty overcharged, and he doesn't know enough about what's been going on to feel comfortable whisking her away immediately.</p><p>Her wings drop low as she ex-vents, sounding frustrated. She takes another sip from her cube and says, "I can make it worth your while."</p><p>He regards her for a moment, torn between what is clearly an offer to clang, and the feeling in the back of his processor that she's overcharged and upset and he should probably send her back to Thundercracker so her mate can tuck her into berth. Except when he scans the room, the other seeker is already gone.</p><p>Skywarp lays a hand on his thigh, digits a little sticky with spilled high-grade, and smiles up at him seductively. "Come on," she says, voice husky and compelling.</p><p>How can he resist? Astrotrain is not the sort of mech to deny himself just because the situation is murky, and she clearly wants the distraction. "Alright," he says. He half expects her to teleport them straight out, like she had the first time she approached him in this same rec room, but considering her overcharged state it's probably for the best that she doesn't.</p><p>Instead she tugs impatiently at his hand while he unfolds himself and scrapes his way back out of the rec room, gulping down her high-grade as she goes. Though the hallway outside is larger, he starts to mass-shift down in anticipation of fragging, taking off enough size to handle the majority of the base's main corridors.</p><p>She leads them like she has a destination in mind, though as far as he can tell she's actually just picking the route at random. He's surprised when they end up outside, a doorway he hadn't even noticed before letting them out on the other side of the base from the hangar.</p><p>The further they go the more Skywarp's steps start to falter, the empty cube dangling loosely from her digits.</p><p>"Where are we headed?" he asks as they pass through a handful of streets, vaguely wondering if she'll actually be able to make it there in this state.</p><p>She spins around on her heel, then slips because her thrusters are still no good for traction, and looks totally shocked to find herself on the ground, optics wide and intake dropping open. The cube shatters against the ground, shards of glass glinting red from her bio-lights.</p><p>Astrotrain doesn't worry about anybot but himself, hasn't in millions of stellar cycles when he realized connections only lead to pain, but he feels a twinge of something like concern for her now. "Are you... okay?" he asks, offering her a hand to pull herself back up with.</p><p>"Fine," she says sharply, but instead of standing up again she pulls her knees in towards her chest, arms wrapping around her legs and wings pulled low and tight against her back.</p><p>He shifts his weight awkwardly, unsure of what to do and confused that leaving doesn't seem like a real option to him, and then crouches down next to her. "Skywarp?"</p><p>"I'm fine," she repeats, but her voice is muffled where her faceplate is pressing against the tops of her knees, a pose that clearly demonstrates she is <em>not</em> fine.</p><p>This is why he'd wanted to stay out of things, Astrotrain thinks. He doesn't know if it's a fight with her mate or something else, but he's uncomfortable handling emotions like these. And uncomfortable because seeing her like this is upsetting <em>him</em>, somehow, like a repeat of that time she cried- only it feels worse because he knows her better now, even if she's not actually crying. He thinks. Hopefully she's not crying, he's not sure he could stand it if she is.</p><p>She'd calmed down on her own that time, and then seemed calmer still after he took her up into space. Maybe he should offer a flight again?</p><p>"I betrayed Megatron," she blurts out, apropos of nothing.</p><p>He freezes in place, hand in the air where he had raised it to pat her back.</p><p>Her optics bore into him when she turns her faceplate, the crimson glow dimmer than he's used to seeing. "I- I had to," she says, her voice small and pleading. "The Matrix, it's poisoned, and it's poisoned him as well."</p><p>Astrotrain drops his hand back to his side. "What did you do?" he asks, steadier than he would have thought possible. His processor is reeling, trying to figure out what's going on. She's trined to Starscream, infamous in any dimension for plotting to usurp Megatron, but he doesn't think he's seen Skywarp herself be anything but loyal to their leader, proud and respectful when given orders.</p><p>She smiles strangely, more a grimace. "Nothing. I didn't tell him a damn thing."</p><p>He doesn't understand, and shakes his helm in confusion. It's unlikely that she's speaking pure nonsense, but being overcharged might be scrambling her circuits enough to not make sense.</p><p>"What are you talking about?" Astrotrain says, and tentatively reaches out again. She shakes underneath his hand, like her whole frame is vibrating, a high whine he recognizes as her engine trying to take off echoing around them.</p><p>"He put Dark Energon in the Matrix," she says, words blurring together in her rush to get them all out, "Your Megatron. He did it. And my Megatron doesn't know, he used it and used it, and now it's- it's <em>infected</em> him. Dark Energon corrupts, makes you addicted even as it ruins you. He won't give it up now, I know he won't. So I didn't tell him the Autobots are coming to destroy it." She heaves, cooling fans clicking on and struts creaking.</p><p>He says nothing while he pieces things together. What on Cybertron is 'Dark Energon'? Something bad, or something Skywarp thinks is bad, anyway, and the original Megatron had... put some inside the Matrix of Leadership, and now it's affecting the Megatron from this dimension.</p><p>It's strange, how that actually makes sense.</p><p>Hasn't he noticed this Megatron developing a shorter temper, becoming more paranoid? Hasn't he thought for long cycles that his Megatron wasn't the leader he used to be, his ambitions twisting and growing from wanting a more just future for Cybertron to craving domination of the entire galaxy, uncaring of the loyal soldiers he casts aside like so much slag?</p><p>Astrotrain pats his hand against her back gingerly, unfamiliar with how to give comfort and still unbalanced from what she's revealed.</p><p>"You think the Matrix is poisoned," he says. She nods. "And the Autobots are planning an attack?"</p><p>She nods again, not looking at him when she speaks. "I was spying, it's a lot more boring than you'd think. And I heard Prime tell them about it, and they're going to come here and destroy the Matrix. I should have told Megatron, should warn him, but... I think they're right. I think it needs to be destroyed."</p><p>And Megatron, it goes without saying, would never give up such a powerful artifact to his enemies willingly, whether it's poisoned or not.</p><p>Astrotrain ex-vents and considers the fact that he's in a conspiracy now, an accomplice to Skywarp's crime of omission. Because while he <em>should</em> go straight to Megatron and report all this, he already knows he won't. His own punishment for bringing back such news he can tolerate, but Skywarp is unprepared, her frame so much smaller and less armored; he's not sure she can withstand the force of Megatron's anger, not if he's truly turning down the road the original Megatron had.</p><p>"Does anyone else know?" he asks.</p><p>She shakes her helm, optics shut now.</p><p>"Okay," he says, because that's a small relief, knowing there isn't another potential source for leaks. He's surprised she hasn't told Thundercracker but then again, she probably doesn't want to endanger him. "I don't think you're wrong."</p><p>Skywarp jerks her head up to look at him, some open and raw expression on her faceplate he can't categorize.</p><p>"I've seen Megatron change," he says quietly, fear flickering like a fire through his circuits at what he's admitting out loud. "Twice, now. If it's the Matrix that's responsible- I don't know what 'Dark Energon' is, but I believe you that it's bad- then it has to be taken away. I'd rather it be an Autobot to deactivate in the attempt than one of us."</p><p>The thought of Skywarp trying to take the artifact away on her own- even though she probably has the best chance, if she warps her hand straight through Megatron's armor like she did with that energon dispenser so many cycles ago- sits like a crushing vise around his laser core. She hadn't survived his own Megatron, he doesn't want to find out she can't survive hers, either.</p><p> </p><p>He ends up allowing Skywarp to recharge with him- in him, his alt mode folded around her with the little bit of protection it can offer. He tried to bring her back to her habsuite but she refused once she realized where he was carrying her, panicked over the thought of Thundercracker finding out.</p><p>So Astrotrain brought her to the hangar, letting her spread out across the passenger seats of his locomotive form to recharge off the high-grade while he keeps watch, processor whirling.</p><p>This isn't the first time he'll be betraying Megatron, considering he fled his own dimension after helping to steal the Matrix of Leadership from him, but he'd hoped that would also be the <em>last</em> time. Clearly the universe has different plans in mind for him.</p><p>Skywarp wakes with a jerk and an unintelligible mumble, nearly tipping herself out of his narrow row of seats. He waits patiently while she blinks and stretches and comes to terms with whatever effects the high-grade has left in her system, and then onlines his holo-avatar.</p><p>"Do you have a plan?" Astrotrain asks.</p><p>"Morning to you, too," she mutters, which he ignores, and then shakes her helm with a sigh. "I didn't mean to tell you."</p><p>"I figured," he says, tipping his holo-avatar to the side to imitate a shrug.</p><p>Skywarp runs her hand down her faceplate, then straightens her posture like she's been called to attention. "Well, what do you suggest?"</p><p>He just aims a blank expression at her. He doesn't come up with plans, he just follows the tracks laid out before him.</p><p>"Ugh," she says, wings giving a quick flick against the backs of his seats. "You're not going to hang me out to rust though, are you?"</p><p>"No," Astrotrain says. He thought that was obvious, since he had all night to drop her unconscious frame off at the brig if that was his aim and instead he lowered his interior lights to their minimum settings and let her recharge on his seating.</p><p>"That's something, I guess," she says.</p><p>"Do you know when the Autobots are planning to strike?" he asks when it becomes clear she needs prompting.</p><p>She shakes her helm. "If they made plans, it wasn't when I could hear them. Soon, though, probably," she says, and her hands grip the edge of the seat she's on, digits curling in against the padded mesh. She cycles air through her vents, stalling or just stalled. "All I have to do is keep quiet, right?" Her optics sharpen their focus, bright glowing red as she looks at his holo-avatar. "He'll scrap me if he finds out I knew, but if he never finds out then there's no danger."</p><p>He nods in agreement. "And if they aren't successful?"</p><p>Skywarp pulls a frustrated face, and stands up out of the seat in an abrupt movement. "Then nothing," she says. "Do you know what Dark Energon is, what it can do?"</p><p>"No," he says simply. He isn't connected to this dimension's datanet internally, and it's hard to get to a terminal when he's stuck in his train form, so he hasn't even had a chance to look it up since hearing it for the first time.</p><p>She walks over to his dashboard, thrusters clicking quietly against his flooring. His cab's not much different in this form compared to his shuttle alt, not after the alterations he's had to make over the stellar cycles, so there's not much for her restless digits to fiddle with.</p><p>"It's dangerous," she says in a solemn tone he's never heard from her before. "Like, even <em>Starscream</em> felt it was too dangerous to be used. You get power out of it, sure, but it doesn't just explode or whatever- it taints normal energon, poisons any mechanism exposed to it. And it makes you <em>want</em> it, crave it even when it's corrupting your spark to the point you can't join the Well when it extinguishes you."</p><p>Astrotrain feels a shiver run through his actuators at the description. Even if she's exaggerating, just the thought of something like that in the possession of his original Megatron- no wonder he was so successful in his conquests, seems so much more powerful than the Megatron of this dimension.</p><p>"So, yeah," she says, tone suddenly flippant. "If the Autobots fail- and they probably will- I'm not going to be lining up to take their place."</p><p> </p><p>He's thinking about what Skywarp told him when Megatron calls upon the Matrix of Leadership a cycle later, the artifact leaving his chassis to hang mid-air while he communes with it. The Autobots haven't shown up yet, haven't even tested the Line. Astrotrain doesn't know what they're waiting for but his sense of unease is growing, a deep foreboding feeling jamming up his functions.</p><p>When the original Megatron shows up, they'll need the Matrix to fight him off. But if this Megatron can fight <em>him</em> and win, the Autobots won't stand a chance of taking the Matrix. Not unless they have help.</p><p>It's eerie to watch his leader like this, defenseless and unaware of anything except whatever he's experiencing via the Matrix. Astrotrain could reach out and crush the Matrix right now, ending the threat it represents, but doing so would not only leave them vulnerable to attack by the original Megatron, it would also result in himself being either deactivated, or at best barred from ever seeing this dimension again. Not such a heavy price, really, if it wasn't for Skywarp and the chance that she might be implicated as well.</p><p>The Matrix slides back into place underneath Megatron's chest plating and the opportunity is lost.</p><p>"The Primes will not help," he says, like there was ever really a solid chance of that happening.</p><p>Astrotrain watches impassively as Megatron smashes a chunk of the computer terminal spanning the room, and then turns his ire to Sky-Byte who scurries away.</p><p>Despite his misgivings about Megatron's current state and what to do about it, he's still proud to present the completed dimensional ray. It's not the <em>only</em> weapon that has a chance of defeating the Megatron from his original dimension, but it certainly tips the scales in their favor. And, it cements his position in this new universe as a mecha who is useful for more than just his cargo capacity.</p><p>Megatron seems pleased with the hand-held ray, but moves on immediately to the subject of the missing Insecticons, tucking the weapon away in his subspace without more than a cursory glance at it.</p><p>Even after he marches out to find them and it's just Astrotrain left, the air in the room doesn't lose any of its tension.</p><p> </p><p>::Got a report of cyber-cows stampeding through the wall:: Skywarp comms him not a cycle later, and it should be a non-sequitur, but.</p><p>::You think it's them?:: he asks, even though he already knows the answer.</p><p>::Strange coincidence if it's not:: she says, and he can hear the stress crackling like static in her voice.</p><p>Astrotrain agrees; it's possible for the mechanimals to have gotten spooked into running on their own, but it seems unlikely when the nearest Autobot ranch is kliks away from the border. Which means he is now actively committing treason by not alerting Megatron to the Autobots' plot, and he knows Skywarp is panicking for the same reason.</p><p>He's used to not giving anything away. No one ever asks much of him, and even if his expression does glitch a little no one will be craning their neck cables to see. He's just the grunt, the shuttle who knows to keep his vocalizer offline and do as he's told.</p><p>::Stay away from the base:: he suggests to her, because she doesn't have the same experience. Whatever the outcome, it's better for Skywarp not to be near the epicenter.</p><p>::If the Autobots show up I need to be there to fight!:: she says, distress plain in her tone.</p><p>Astrotrain shakes his head, even though she can't see. ::Keep your distance:: he says, ::If Megatron gets suspicious he won't spare you::</p><p>She replies with a frustrated growl, clearly unhappy with the situation. The comm-link clicks off, and he hopes she manages to curb her impulsiveness long enough to weather this storm, hopes with a sour twist of his spark that the Autobots are successful for once.</p><p> </p><p>And then Megatron finds them, and Astrotrain can't think of anything except the terror filling every single circuit of his system, emotional co-processor a storm of cascading errors. The dimensional shield goes up in time to disrupt the arrival of a squad of Perfect Decepticons, but it's not all the way finished and it wouldn't be enough even if it was. Lord Megatron has found them, and there's nothing that will stop him now that he has his target.</p><p>Even the Autobots showing up pales in significance, the consequences for if Megatron finds out he and Skywarp had advance warning and didn't inform him barely meriting a blip in Astrotrain's processor as it churns out threat assessments, HUD cluttered with alerts and requests to online his weaponry.</p><p>The shield fails.</p><p>He knew it would, knew even if it was perfect it would barely grant them a couple of cycles before Megatron found his way around it. But despite that Astrotrain is unprepared for the reality of the situation, the sight of those horrible slave-coded Perfect Decepticons appearing in this dimension that he'd hoped would be safe.</p><p>"They're everything I ever dreamed of, but was never able to create," Megatron is saying, and it's not a surprise, not really, but Astrotrain feels the last shred of hope extinguishing in his chest.</p><p>This Megatron really is every bit the tyrant his original leader is, he's just lacked the means to execute the same vision.</p><p>One of the Autobots says something, asks why the Perfect Decepticons haven't attacked.</p><p>"They're waiting for their master to arrive," Astrotrain says, feeling oddly disconnected from his frame as emergency protocols work to throttle down his co-processor. Megatron is going to appear in a matter of astrocycles, as soon as whatever technology he's using to cross into this dimension can take him. He should stay and fight, like he said he would when this dimension's Megatron convinced him to help, but he knows deep down to his very spark that it's useless.</p><p>Megatron, the true Megatron, cannot be defeated.</p><p>"Yeah, and we don't want to be here when that happens," Dead End says, cringing as if his handful of cycles exposed to Megatron has shown him <em>anything</em> about the wrath about to be unleashed.</p><p>"For once you're right, Dead End," Astrotrain says, dark laughter bubbling up through him because he <em>doesn't</em> have to be here. He has the multiverse drive coiled through his system, he can be anywhere at all, in any dimension. "Enjoy your final moments," he tosses out as a final taunt to his unwilling former partner, already transforming into his shuttle alt and opening a portal to unspace.</p><p> </p><p>It takes a considerable amount of work to recalibrate the multiverse drive to another universe's frequency. The technology is alien to his system, the coding that allows him to interact with it just a crudely written series of hotfixes. Just finding a habitable dimension in the first place takes up a huge amount of work; so many dimensions have collapsed, or fallen prey to the Quintessons, or aren't suitable for Cybertronian life even before he considers who is ruling Cybertron itself.</p><p>Astrotrain floats in unspace for what feels like a long stretch of time, a suitable universe located and dialed in. All he has to do is open the portal and he'll be gone forever from Megatron's grasp- why would he bother to come after Astrotrain, a mech only valuable because it's more effort to get a replacement shuttle built?</p><p>Yet he hesitates. Maybe Megatron <em>can</em> be defeated, somehow. Maybe the Autobots will have some trick he hasn't thought of, maybe the dimensional ray he built will be enough.</p><p>And what about Skywarp? Guilt pangs him, worry gnawing at his wires. She won't heed his advice to flee, he already knows she won't, and then her spark will be extinguished because Megatron has no use for her, might even make an <em>example</em> of her if he finds out she had any part in trying to destroy the Matrix. It shouldn't matter. Astrotrain has watched countless mecha be terminated or reprogrammed, ones he's fragged and ones he's considered something like friends, and none of them had mattered for scrap in the face of keeping himself online.</p><p>But the thought of Skywarp being deactivated, her bright energy and husky laughter gone for good, feels unbearable.</p><p>He hates her for it, a sharp slice of bitterness cutting through the fear. Hates that she's become important enough to him that he's thinking about going back, thinking about all the ways he might be able to help deactivate Megatron just to make sure her spark goes on existing another cycle.</p><p>But his hatred won't stay when it's aimed at her, slips out of his circuits like solvent out of a leaky bucket. Somehow without himself noticing he's grown to care for her, truly care, and it's impossible for him to resent her for it when it's his own damn fault.</p><p>Astrotrain resets the multiverse drive to the dimension he just exited, and opens a portal back above the Decepticon base. The shield Sky-Byte designed is flawed, but it has enough kick to mess up his intended destination, instead spitting him out just past the wall of shielding.</p><p>He doesn't have a plan, no idea if he's going to join in on any attack Megatron is facing or if he'll take Skywarp and run, weathering the storm of her anger at being separated from her trine and her rightful dimension because at least she'll still function.</p><p>But what he finds when he slams down is Megatron, the true Megatron from his dimension, damaged and defeated by the Autobots standing over him, clearly stasis-locked or close enough. Where the Megatron from this dimension is he has no idea, can't spare the processor space to care about finding out, because the Lord Megatron who tormented him for so long is halfway to extinguished like something out of his wildest fantasies.</p><p>It's more than he's ever dared to hope for. "Look at him," Astrotrain says to himself, seeing suddenly how small Megatron is, always has been, compared to his own frame. "He's almost deactivated."</p><p>He reaches for Megatron's sparking frame, an idea forming in his processor like a hidden switch revealing a new track. Never before has Astrotrain ever thought he could have <em>revenge</em>, that he'd ever have access to his leader's defenseless chassis and nothing to stop him from doing whatever he wants.</p><p>"I'll take this junk-bucket into unspace," he tells Prime offhandedly, more to hear the idea out loud than because he cares whether the Autobots know or not, "And keep him imprisoned inside of me as long as I can."</p><p>Astrotrain laughs, almost giddy with the relief of being out from under Megatron's thumb, the relief of knowing he'll never suffer another unwarranted punishment, another round of torture for refusing to give up his second alt mode, never watch another wave of slave-coded Perfect Decepticons emerge where free sparks once stood. Almost giddy with relief to know that Skywarp will be safe.</p><p>"I've got big plans for him."</p>
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